Your goal when hiring a VA is to ask very specific questions in regards to her work hours:

• Does she have standard Monday through Friday work hours? How about Saturday, Sunday?

• What is VA's policy for emergency and after-hours work?

• Does VA recognize national holidays and if so, which ones?

Also, verify VA's time zone. Remember that some parts of U. S. do not participate in twice-yearly time change in April and October.

It's critical you impart hours you need your VA to be available; it's even more important you confirm your Virtual Assistant’s availability.

Consideration #4: Services

Before you step into VA world, sit down and make a list of tasks you need to off-load. Remember, reason to hire a Virtual Assistant is to free up your valuable time so you can do what you do best: run your business and bring home bacon!

Here are a few examples of types of tasks to off-load to your Virtual Assistant:

Administrative: **Typing Projects **Proofreading **Research **Data Entry **E-mail Management **Voice Mail Management

Technical: **Website Design & Maintenance **HTML Coding **FTP Services

Creative: **Copywriting **Marketing

Financial: **Bookkeeping **Payroll **Financial Report

Make that list and check it twice. As you VA shop, keep your list handy to see what types of tasks Virtual Assistant can handle for you.

Consideration #5: Rates

What’s that … you think I do this for free? On contrary, my dear business owner. Look, I’m a small business owner, just like you are. I work hard every day to earn it, just like you do. I expect to get paid for my valuable time and for services I provide, just like you do.

Rates, rates, rates. Virtual Assistants charge different rates for different types of services. Some VAs charge overtime, after-hours and holiday rates. Typically, you should expect to pay anywhere from $20.00 - $60.00 (sometimes more, sometimes less) per hour. You should also ask VA if she offers project-based rates.

Ask VA if she charges overtime or after-hours rates. Ask her if she charges different rates for work performed on holidays, as well.

Consideration #6: Billing Policies

The work is complete and for your VA, it’s time to bill. When you interview VAs, ask how they bill, frequency of billing and any billing policies they have in place, such as Net15, Payable Upon Receipt, etc. Does VA offer PayPal as a payment option, or does she prefer to be paid via check?

Consideration #7: Do You LIKE This Person

My final tip? Ask yourself, "Do I like this person? Can I work with this person, day in and day out?" Life is too short and too precious to waste time in a business relationship which does not make you happy and which does not fulfill your needs.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant can be a lengthy process. Take time you need to find VA who’s just right for you and your business.

Copyright 2005 Lori Davis. All rights reserved.

How about when quality of audio recording is not top-notch, such as when there is background noise or people speaking on top of each other... how does it handle that?

Even when there is only a single speaker, if they do not dictate punctuation, paragraphs, etc., does software intuit that correctly?

If software does not handle these issues well, how much work is involved in cleaning up text?

Also, in my relationships with clients I've worked with, there is unquantifiable element of me being an objective outsider who can catch errors or discrepancies in CONTENT. And I often even come up with valuable ideas to help them improve their material!

There is a creative, collaborative give and take between my clients and me that often seems to be of benefit to us BOTH beyond action of me ‘just’ transcribing their audio recordings.

So, I concluded, there IS still a need for my services by many people! Not all, but I’m sure enough to keep me busy. I actually do enjoy this kind of work under right circumstances and with types of clients I intend to connect with!

So in end, I thanked that discussion forum member for her post and internal thinking process it sent me through, because it helped me face a fear and come out stronger on other side!

And then, as a welcome validation of everything I had deduced on my own, quickly after I had submitted my reply to her, she was kind enough to reply with a more detailed explanation of how voice recognition software works and its definite limitations -- everything I had suspected, and even more!

I truly have a valuable, worthwhile service to offer my clients. I’m very proud of my skills, my dedication, and my opportunity to make a contribution to entire world by assisting my clients to develop their own gifts in ways they might never on their own IF it was up to themselves alone to type out their wisdom and creativity!

Copyright Laurie Kristensen, 2005-Present. All rights reserved.

Laurie Kristensen owns and operates a successful audio transcription and typing business from home, visit http://www.LKTranscription.com Also be sure to browse through her Success Resources at http://www.LKSuccess.com